Monday, February 02, 2009

Turns Out It Was a Real Football Game ...



...despite all the phony pre-game hype from Tampa.

James Harrison's 100-yard interception return will certainly live among the great Super Bowl images, as will Springsteen (hey, a halftime show that didn't actually suck, unless you're one of the Springsteen-haters, in which case it definitely sucked), not to mention that amazing fourth quarter -- and all those penalties throughout the game. (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today refers to "the stupidest mudslide of crippling penalties by two teams seemingly incapable of getting out of their own way."}

Incidentally, speaking of penalties, how dumb and inherently violent does a football player have to be to try to punch-out another football player wearing a NFL Riddell helmet and facemask?

One other abiding image for me was during pre-game, when five quiet American heroes -- the pilot, co-pilot and flight attendants from Flight 1549 -- got a standing ovation from the crowd. You had to look fast on TV, because the director couldn't wait to crop out everyone but Captain Sullenberger (ditto for many of the papers that ran a picture today, some of which even ran a photo of Sully alone with, for some God-only-knows reason, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell).

But there they are, all five of them.

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